Union City man charged with transporting bodies of two dismembered murder victims

Friday, June 04, 2010

By MICHAELANGELO CONTE

JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

UNION CITY - A man who had a gun, a fake New York Police
Department badge, handcuffs and $6,000 has been arrested in
connection with the case of two city residents who were
killed in their home before being dismembered and dumped in
Linden in April, officials said.

"The investigation into the murder is ongoing and he
has not been charged in the homicide at this time,"
Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said of Ruben
Acosta, 36, aka "Alejandro Mercedes," of 22nd
Street in Union City.

"The theory of our case at this point is he is in
fact the person driving the car in which the bodies were
removed and he generally fits the description of the man
seen on the (security) video," DeFazio said.

Acosta made his first court appearance yesterday on the
charge of hindering apprehension for allegedly removing the
bodies of Angel Torres, 48, and Lazaro Calero, 49, DeFazio
said.

Acosta was charged with weapons offenses based on the
discovery of a handgun in his car after he was spotted and
arrested in Union City Wednesday evening. Detectives also
found suspected cocaine and charged him with drug possession
with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school,
DeFazio said.

On April 5, the partially decomposed bodies of Torres and
Calero were found in two plastic bags and four cloth laundry
bags in Linden.

It is believed they were killed "on or about"
April 1 inside their apartment at Fourth Street off
Bergenline Avenue. They were also dismembered there before
someone used bleach and a mop to clean the bloody scene,
officials said.

Last week, investigators released images of a car outside the scene of the crime that were captured by a nearby security camera. When Acosta was stopped on Wednesday he was driving what appeared to be the same car....